New Bell Tower hits the stands, artists recognized

The Bell Tower Arts Journal Release party gathered a vast variety of people to celebrate the newest issue being released.

“It’s been a long process but it’s been worth the wait,” said Art Department Chair Derrick White. “These students were excited to be accepted into the Bell Tower, now they get to see it. It just keeps getting better,”

Three awards were given out to students for their work that was featured in the journal.

Willow Lanchester won the award for best art in the journal, she had two pieces that made the journal. The first being a charcoal self-portrait, the other an acrylic painting of a moth.

Aji Fatou Sakho won an award for best literary, she had three pieces that made the journal. The three pieces those being “Afrique,” “International” and “The Whisperer” (Alwaswaasu).

And lastly Cortny Handorf won the photography award. Handorf also had three pieces that made it into the journal, those pieces being “Blissful,” “Eye of the Beholder” and “Just Cat’n Around.”

The first ever three-dimensional art piece was placed in this year’s journal. Tact-Eagle was created by Art Major Matthew Hopkins, the piece is a made of cardboard and paint.

“This is the first sculpture I have ever really done,” said Hopkins. “Mr. Dunlap, my professor, pushed me to hone in. I figured if an Eagle had an eye piece, it could see that much better. It wasn’t anything profound. I really didn’t want to cut each and every feather, but I did and because of that, I think that’s why it came out as good as it did because he wouldn’t let me stop at good enough; he wanted me to do better.”

White hopes to see more three-dimensional pieces in the Bell Tower in years to come now that there is access to the equipment to take photos of the work.

“We have collaborated with the visual communications department in shooting some of the 3-D art work,” said White “I would like to see in the future more ceramic pieces and more sculpture pieces in the Bell Tower.”

Alumnus Lenora Hill had her acrylic painting “Mozart” featured. Hill was excited to learn that her work was being published.

“Other than the newspaper, I have never had anything published,” said Hill. “It’s really awesome to take that first step. As an artist, you submit to a lot of things and you get more rejected more so than accepted, so it was really cool to get that email that my work had been selected.”

Submissions for the 2017 Bell Tower are already open, the submission deadline is Nov. 9. Submissions can be turned in to the Humanities, Communications and Fine Arts Office in Jenkins.